210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
center of this flat is rich oak and hickory, margined on both sides with rich cane swamp ; 
the land back of the town, for a mile, is flat, a whitish clay ; small pine, oak, and dwarf 
hickory, then high pine forest. 
There are thirty buildings in the town, compactly situated, and from the bluff a 
fine view of the flat lands in the fork, and on the right bank of Coosau, which river is 
here two hundred yards wide. In the yard of the town house there are five cannon 
of iron, with the trunions broke off, and on the bluff some brickbats, the only remains 
of the French establishment here. There is one apple tree claimed by this town now 
in possession of one of the chiefs of Book-choie-oo-che [Okchaiyutci]. 1 
The fields are the left side of Tal-la-poo-sa, and there are some small patches well 
formed in the fork of the rivers, on the flat rich land below the bluff. 
The Coosau extending itself a great way into the Cherokee country and mountains, 
gives scope for a vast accumulation of waters, at times. The Indians remark that 
once in fifteen or sixteen years, 2 they have a flood, which overflows the banks, and 
spreads itsolf for five miles or more 3 in width, in many parts of A-la-ba-ma. The rise 
is sudden, and so rapid as to drive a current up the Tal-la-poo-sa for eight miles. In 
January, 1796, 4 the flood rose forty -seven feet, and spread itself for three miles on the 
left bank of the A-la-ba-ma. The ordinary width of that river, taken at the first 
bluff below the fork, is one hundred and fifty yards. The bluff is on the left side, and 
forty-five feet high. On this bluff are five conic mounds of earth, the largest thirty 
yards diameter at the base, and seventeen feet high; the others are smaller. 
It has been for sometime a subject of enquiry, when, and for what purpose, these 
mounds were raised; here it explains itself as to the purpose; unquestionably they 
were intended as a place of safety to the people, in the time of these floods; and this 
is the tradition among the old people. As these Indians came from the other side of 
the Mississippi, and that river spreads out on that side for a great distance, it is proba- 
ble, the erection of mounds originated there; or from the custom of the Indians here- 
tofore, of settling on rich flats bordering on the rivers, and subject to be overflowed. 
The name is E-cun-li-gee, mounds of earth, or literally, earth placed. But why erect 
these mounds in high places, incontestably out of the reach of floods? From a super- 
stitious veneration for ancient customs. 
The Alabama overflows its flat swampy margins, annually; and generally, in the 
month of March, but seldom in the summer season. 
The people of Tuskogee have some cattle, and a fine stock of hogs, more perhaps 
than any town of the nation. One man, Sam Macnack [Sam Moniack], a half breed, 
has a fine stock of cattle. He had, in 1799, one hundred and eighty calves. They 
have lost their language, and speak Creek, and have adopted the customs and man- 
ners of the Creeks. They have thirty-five gun men. 5 
After their removal west the Tuskegee formed a town in the south- 
eastern part of the nation. Later a portion, consisting largely of 
those who had negro blood, moved northwest and settled west of 
Beggs, Okla., close to the Yuchi. 
Although our early histories, books of travel, and documents are 
well-nigh silent on the subject, it is evident from maps of the southern 
regions that part of the Tuskegee got very much farther east at an 
early date. A town of Tuskegee, spelled most frequently "Jaska- 
ges," appears on Chattahoochee River below a town of the Atasi and 
above a town of the Kasihta. This appears on the maps of Popple 
i The Lib. Cong. MS. has " Hook-choie." 3 The Lib. Cong. MS. has " five or six miles." 
2 The Lib. Cong. MS. has "fifteen or twenty * The Lib. Cong. MS. has " 1795." 
years." 6 Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., m, pp. 37-39. 
